<p>Interestingly enough, next to the ingredients list on the package of matzos that I saw in a store, it said CONTAINS WHEAT in bold letters, just to make sure that people with food allergies know.</p>
<p>I had a friend at college who came from a kosher home but was not religious himself.</p>
<p>Whenever he tried to eat something that was overtly non-Kosher, like a cheeseburger, he would barf. He was that conditioned to the idea that such food wasn’t edible. His reaction was kind of like the reaction many of us would have if we found out we were eating insects.</p>
<p>This is a fairly good reason for keeping Kosher even if you are not religious. Nobody enjoys vomiting.</p>
<p>I know a number of people who keep kosher without being otherwise devout. People make choices and want to take on obligations. That is sort of the essence of Jewish practice but it’s not really religious; lots of people take on obligations of all sorts, including eating or not eating certain foods. I have a kid who is gluten-free, dairy-free.</p>
<p>One good thing about kosher is you get food without a lot of additives and generally with less processing. It helps, however, to have extra money because it’s more expensive. Maybe you can use that to reduce eating.</p>
<p>Before I became vegetarian, I kept kosher as a Christian (and was actually interested in Brandeis for that reason and others, though I didn’t end up applying) for both spiritual/religious and health reasons.</p>
<p>Reminds me of something I saw posted on another public forum. Discussion was about the benefits of buying organic milk. Someone posted that one of the benefits is that it “helps you get rid of all that pesky extra cash you have lying around.”</p>
<p>An acquaintance of mine is a psychiatrist in New York City. From what I can tell, her practice is more or less limited to people who are unhappy because they have too much disposable income. She seems to find a way to help them that doesn’t involve kashrut or organic milk.</p>
<p>I can understand the benefits of kosher food from a health/ingredient point of view, but some of the rules make little sense to me, nor do the explanations I’ve received.</p>
<p>For example, some of DW’s family is kosher to the point that they bring their own food whenever they visit, yet they have no problem heating up their food in my microwave, which we use (and they know this) primarily to cook bacon. But to use the oven or a stove burner we first have to either self-clean it or run it for an hour with nothing on it.</p>
<p>It was probably the guilt. I was a vegetarian for a few years during college (isn’t everyone?) and felt incredibly guilty for a long while after I went back to being an omnivore.</p>
I identify with that reaction. Although I grew up non-Jewish and eating treif, I had a similar reaction a few years ago when I accidentally took a bite of shrimp (thinking it was imitation crab stick, made out of pollock, mostly). I gagged. I tried to swallow it, but I ended up spitting it out. I was surprised, because when I was a kid, I loved shrimp cocktail.</p>
<p>But, no, I don’t think it was guilt. I felt no guilt about having put it into my mouth without realizing what it was.</p>
<p>If you want an answer, notrichenough, you can just Google “non-kosher microwave.” There are scads of explanations of the rules online.</p>
<p>If you want a rationale that’s going to be persuasive to you, I can’t help you. That’s more scrupulous than my own observance of the dietary laws.</p>
<p>My D1 loves to watch cooking shows while she’s home for the summer. A recent episode of “Chopped” featured a chef who owns a restaurant in SoCal called “Mexi-Kosher”. It briefly showed he had a special guy there to light the stoves and certify things in the kitchen (is that necessary or just good business?). He cooked whatever they threw at the contestants on the show even if he had no experience them (were there snails?) and ended up winning!</p>
<p>Also, for strict Kosher people (you probably know this already) - lactose free and non-dairy are not the same thing. There are plenty of dairy products that contain no lactose.</p>
<p>The guy (post 35) is called a mashgiach. It’s the Hebrew word for a person who supervises the *kashrut<a href=“the%20kosher-ness”>/I</a> of a kosher establishment, such as a kitchen, butcher shop, factory, slaughterhouse or kosher market.</p>
<p>I accidentally bought Kosher cheddar slices at Whole Foods. I was in a hurry, saw a cheese like substance in slices, and bought it for a weekend at our lake house with many friends in attendance. That cheese was the hit of the weekend. I had bought several packages of the slices, and one little boy in particular liked it so much that I sent a package home with him. I tasted a slice and yes, it was quite good.</p>
<p>I never even took the time to look at the ingredients. How is Kosher cheddar different than regular?</p>
<p>Nrdsb4, one of the enzymes used to make cheese, rennet, is often sourced from non kosher animals. For the rennet to be acceptable, the animal must have been slaughtered in a kosher fashion. Generally those animals are treated better (goes back to one of the foundations of kashrut, ethics), although why the kosher cheese tastes superior, I have no idea.
[Is</a> it Kosher? | KosherQuest](<a href=“You are being redirected...”>http://www.kosherquest.org/book.php?id=CHEESE.htm)</p>
<p>Also, kosher cheese seems to be more restricted to the orthodox Jews. I can’t remember ever seeing non standard cheese at any reform or conservative events I’ve been to.</p>
<p>I’m not Jewish, but back when the airlines used to serve meals in coach, I would often special order a kosher meal. </p>
<p>I had noticed when traveling with an observant Jewish work colleague that his kosher meals looked like they consisted of better food than mine. So I started ordering them for myself. And sure enough they were usually better - better recipes to begin with and apparently of higher quality ingredients too.</p>
<p>One difference might be items that are mass produced and those that are not. Kosher airline meals are produced by a different caterer for a smaller population. I don’t think these companies would do well over time if their products weren’t good. Whole Foods also selects for natural high quality products. I googled their Kosher cheese and it was certified by Star K, which only certifies a small number of dairy products.
However, people who are health conscious or have allergies should read all labels carefully. There are mass produced products that are also Kosher, and they aren’t necessarily any healthier for you nutrition- wise.</p>
<p>Yes, there are a few dairy products that my vegetarian/lactose-intolerant son eats while at home. He is much more careful when he is at school. He never assumes that he can eat any cheese in the dining halls. He just assumes that he can’t. It’s easier that way. He basically avoids all dairy while he’s at school. Parve foods can also have fish in them, so he still needs to ask questions and read carefully. He’s been a vegetarian since he was 7, so he is unlikely to change. It was his choice at that time. He hasn’t eaten any meat or fish since then. The lactose-intolerance (or at least the knowledge of it) came later and was unfortunate and inconvenient. He tried all the campus dining halls when he was touring campuses to make sure the vegetarian food was good. Still, the selection gets repetitive.</p>
<p>We keep strictly kosher at home. This is how I was raised. If you’ve grown up with it, it isn’t a big megillah at all. My kids have no problem dealing with this as this is how they were raised.</p>
<p>Harkening back to Marian’s earlier post about reactions to mixing milk and meat, when I was 10 years old I was invited to a friend’s house for dinner. There I encountered a terrible dilemma. My parents brought me up to be a polite guest and eat everything that was served to me. I was visiting a Jewish friend who did not keep kosher and her parents served me a rib steak along with…a glass of milk. I dutifully finished everything put in front of me, then went upstairs to the bathroom and you can figure out the rest. I don’t think that at 10 years old I was fully infused with Jewish guilt. I think this was just a normal reaction of eating foods which did not agree with my kosher stomach. :D</p>
<p>My three kids keep kosher, but more like kosher style. One of their reasons is that it’s good discipline, another is that it is a constant reminder of their religion. We are conservative, not orthodox. My husband grew up conservative, I grew up reform. I don’t keep kosher, but don’t mix at home and cook kosher. I’ve realized there isn’t a right or wrong…although many people judge us. For example, we’ll eat cooked meat out. My daughter’s fiance will eat anything out, but is much more strict than we are at home. One son’s girlfriend is a strict vegetarian, so no problem there. The other son’s girlfriend is learning, like I did, to keep kosher style. I don’t know that we’re particularly religious, kind of hard to define that for me, or observant. But this works for us.</p>
My kids have no problem dealing with this as this is how they were raised.</p>
I think this was just a normal reaction of eating foods which did not agree with my kosher stomach. :D</p>